Growing Up in Wisconsin

(as told by Elizabeth Perkins Buchheit)

In the summer, I went up to Blue Lake in Minocqua, Wisconsin. My folks bought the land in 1922. They were one of the real old timers up there in Minocqua. Really old. We didn’t go there until the cabin was built because there wasn’t anything there. It was very simple.

VERNON WORK MYERS: You could get up there by train.  

The roads were like the program Driving Across the US. They went from our place in Park Ridge to the Upper Peninsula. When I was a kid it took as many as three days, depending on when you’d get started.

VERNON WORK MYERS: People had to fix a lot tires.  

My dad said you’d get in a ditch every once in a while. They cut ‘em for water to drain. You had to have a ditch on each side. So sometimes you’d get stuck in the ditch. And then you’d have to walk to get a farmer with a horse to pull you out. And the joke used to be the farmer would always yell, “Get a horse!”

VERNON WORK MYERS: Automobiles broke down a lot. They were more novelties.  

Electricity never came to Northern Wisconsin until after the war, around 1946 or 1948, so we didn’t have electricity and we didn’t have a telephone. We had outside plumbing. But then we had a pump. Dad put a bucket on top of the garage which held water. Once a week we would pump water up in there. And you can tell how much water was in the bucket because there was a wood float on the outside. When the float went up the water went down. So then you would start pumping again and get it up there. And that brought water into the kitchen and the bathroom.

We lived on the east basin which was later sold to Mr. Stinton in about 1948. Mr. Stinton was about as nasty a guy as you would ever meet. My father used to call him “Old Haberdang” but you know what? My father would visit Mr. Stinton just about every day because he knew that a fellow like that didn’t have any other company. His family certainly didn’t want to spend any time with him.

Then we moved across the lake to where Blue View currently is. We bought the Vance lot and then we had the lot next door fromAUBREY STAUFFER. We had a little cabin there and we lived sort of outside there. We ate outside and we had a kitchen outside. On the back of the house, there were nails where all the pans hung. Lightning struck the cabin in the early 1960s. Everything caught on fire and the cabin burned down.

[Betty Buchheit and Billy the Horse]

Living in Wisconsin during the summers was really the “making of me”. I loved to be outside. I loved to ride horses. I had a horse of my own named Billy. He was a quarter-horse who looked a lot like Pepsi. He had three white feet and a white nose. We used to go all over. You could ride anywhere. It was marvelous. But then finally it got too expensive. It cost $60 to keep the horse all winter. Now that doesn’t sound like a lot but in those days it was a lot.

My mother didn’t even have a car in the summer and people would be shocked about that now. But Art Pinkowski went to the grocery store once a week and we gave him a list and that was the way you got your groceries.

[Betty Buchheit, Ruth Michael, Chris Yantis, Betty Cowie in 1946]

We did a lot of swimming. We’d think nothing of swimming around the island. Our main source of enjoyment was sports. You always had your parties down on the beach. You probably had a keg of beer and everybody sang songs. People had a lot of fun and a lot of energy. Young people were crazy about diving. That was the big sport. So you had a high dive, a medium dive and then a springboard. We all loved to do various kinds of diving and follow the leader, doing a flip or something. The neighbors next door to us used to have an Olympic springboard and it was 10 feet down so it was all safe. It was simply marvelous. And now because of litigation, there is no diving. They’ve taken all the springboards off. All of that’s gone and everybody just sits properly straight and rides in a big motorboat.

[Betty Buchheit and Grace Jones Camping]

In 1934, eight of my friends from Park Ridge came up to the lake. Marjory Chindahl, Grace Jones, Ruth Dinse and Ruth Croasdale were there. I think we were about 14 at the time. We had our own cabin and we had the best time. We divided everybody up, two on a team. One team made the bed. One made the food. One made this, that and the other thing. And I remember my father came once a day to check on us. One time he said, “I’m so thirsty. I’d like a glass of water. “ And Ruth Croasdale said, “You know, I’m very thirsty too but it’s not my day to get it.” Kids are the same. No matter what generation, they’re all the same.

Occasionally a young man would appear from Illinois. I remember a couple came on motorcycles to see whoever was there, like me. You know, life is just the same no matter whether they walk or ride or come in by a jet. My parents didn’t mind. People had great faith in everybody in those days. It was a lot of fun.